Within the past decade there have been numerous instances of hijacking of commercial aircraft by terrorists in which the passengers are held hostage within the aircraft for political and economically motivated purposes. To attempt overpowering the hijackers while the aircraft is on the ground (e.g., during refueling) assault teams are sometimes employed which attempt to board the aircraft to overcome the hijackers with deadly force and with minimum casualities among the hostages. To accomplish this, an assault team must neutralize (i.e., render unconscious or powerless) the terrorists in an almost instantaneous manner to prevent immediate retaliation against the hostage passengers.
The use of a knockout gas administered to the aircraft interior, if successfully accomplished, may neutralize the terrorists with minimal harm to the hostages. However, the use of a knockout gas against terrorists has traditionally been frustrated for two reasons. First, gas delivery systems of which I am aware generally comprise inaccurate canister systems which must be delivered through an open door of the aircraft. In most hostage situations, since only one entrance door is usually open, and even if the assault team is successful in placing a canister of gas within the opening, the gas usually cannot spread through the entire aircraft interior quickly enough to neutralize all the terrorists especially when the terrorists are uniformly distributed throughout the aircraft interior.
It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide a gas dispensing warhead which may be mounted on extremely accurate and conventional wire guided anti-tank weaponry so that one or more gunners firing one or more warheads can hit the aircraft target at specific points and with great accuracy to quickly dispense a knockout gas throughout the entire aircraft interior.
Another object of the invention is to provide a gas dispensing warhead that may be mounted to a standard anti-tank missile as the delivery means so that either minimal or no additional training is necessary to train assault teams in the proper use of the weapon system.
Another object of the invention is to provide a gas dispensing projectile or warhead that may be fired from remote relocations (e.g., about one kilometer) and which gas dispensing projectile or warhead will pierce the aircraft fuselage causing knockout gas to be released into the aircraft interior, while the projectile itself remains safely anchored within the fuselage wall so that it does not collide with hostages.
Yet a further object is to provide a gas dispensing warhead for use with conventional anti-tank weaponry systems whereby a plurality of gas dispensing warheads may be simultaneously fired to penetrate different sections of the aircraft fuselage enabling uniform distribution of knockout gas throughout the aircraft interior.